All in all, Business Insider reports that a "Trainee Butler" earns about £15,000 a year (about $21,000). However, as the "trainee" implies, this figure can rise dramatically with experience. How high? Once butlers leave royal service, they're in demand for the uber-wealthy. Per the Independent, they might be offered £100,000 a year or more ($140,000), get shipped to New York, Dubai, or the Caribbean, and manage multiple households while receiving "job perks" that include "accommodation, food, health care, and a car." This isn't typical, though. Historically, butlers were basically household overseers who retained some light duties like polishing silverware and managing wine cellars (per Life Takes Lemons).
That's not to say that being a butler is easy. In 2020, the Daily Express recounted tales told by previous royal butlers and other household staff in the documentary "Royal Servants" (available on YouTube). The familiar phrase, "The best servant is one that is neither seen nor heard," seems to be the rule of thumb. The documentary says, "The royal family demand the most professional servants in the world, the kind of servants who would rather die than make a mistake." Butlers, for instance, lay out clothes in the morning, silently, behind the scenes, "lest royal ears are offended."
Paul Kidd, royal butler (1975 – 1982), spoke well of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Royal servant Peter Russell (1954 – 1968), though, said that Princess Margaret treated people like "human ashtrays."
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